1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to integrated circuits (ICs) and more particularly to circuits and methods of measuring and monitoring device temperature on ICs.
2. Background Description
It is well known that diode current can be approximated by I=I0(eqV/kT−1), where I0 is the diode turn on current, q is the charge magnitude, V is the junction bias voltage, k is the Boltzmann's constant and T is junction temperature. Similarly, field effect transistor (FET) characteristics, including threshold voltage (VT), device drain to source current (Ids) and leakage currents are related to the temperature of the material (e.g., semiconductor) embodying the FET by well known relationships. In a typical integrated circuit (IC), individual circuit device currents combine to drive capacitive loads at circuit nodes. So, if local (device or junction) temperature is known, device current and, correspondingly, circuit performance can be calculated very precisely. Consequently, an accurate device model requires an accurate device current description.
Current through semiconductor (e.g., silicon) junctions and devices generates heat locally. On a typical IC chip, each such junction or device may act as a local heat source and, more particularly, as a point heat source. How heat is conducted away from each point source depends upon its surrounding and thermally connected structures. For example, how the point source cools may depend in part on whether the circuit is in bulk silicon (Si) or silicon on insulator (SOI), whether the heat source is a single isolated device on a silicon island or is one heat source amongst a group of heat sources, whether metal directly contacts the heat source and etc. Glass (Si/SiO) is a poor heat conductor. So, circuits and even individual devices on a silicon island may be thermally insulated from each other, even though they reside on the same chip. Unfortunately, heat dissipation in modern SOI is not well understood. Previously, only crude imprecise temperature measurements have been available, e.g., chip level thermal measurements or using thermal imaging to characterize circuit-wide temperatures. Measuring gate resistance has provided the temperature of a structure one or two layers above the device active region, the region of concern and, still provides a somewhat distorted reflection of the channel temperature. So, for example, each junction/device is simulated, normally, at the same temperature as every other junction/device on the same circuit or a chip.
Further, device temperature may vary depending upon its immediate history. For example, a device in memory select logic may be switched on after several cycles of dormancy and so, may add little to ambient temperature. By contrast a device in a multiplexor may be switching aperiodically, making a variable contribution to ambient; an inverter in a clock buffer may be switching every cycle, cumulatively contributing to ambient and, itself being at a significantly higher temperature than ambient.
Consequently, because so little information is available about instantaneous thermal conditions at and for any particular device, normally, device current is modeled at one or more particular temperatures, e.g., nominal and both expected extremes. In addition, because it has been difficult, if not impossible, to characterize heat variations other than for large areas, individual device temperature and thermal time constants are not well known. However, without an accurate description of these parameters, e.g., a temperature to time relationship, it has not been possible to construct thermally accurate device models, much less monitor local circuit/device temperature during actual operation, e.g., to signal a shut down when device temperature exceeds an acceptable limit.
Thus, there is a need for an accurate characterization of IC structure temperatures and for a way to monitor junction and device temperatures during chip operation.